Infected scales, possibly bacterial or fungal infection, dont know what to do :(

[AHHHHHHH]

Yeah I'll take the water bowls out, i figured it would have to be done, I'll just give my girl more consistent baths so she doesn't have to miss that. I'm going to try to find a bin or something for one of them, although ideally I'll find something I could place in the tank to divide them so that I don't have to get a whole new lighting set up and I can just rearrange so everything is hitting both of them. I'm going to order some antibiotics right now for him and will start him on those as soon as they ship. I really appreciate all your help!

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

I do think it is possibly fungal. It can start out as infection too but fungus definitely becomes raw sometimes. Honey would be ideal
to use initially since there are some raw areas & it is gentle on the skin. You could get some gauze to wrap around the leg so it isn't
as sticky.
How is he doing this evening? Does he have a pretty good appetite?
It would be a good idea to separate them & eventually they adjust to being moved around.
Are you getting him to a vet or just going to try a few things first to determine improvement?

Tracie

 

[AHHHHHHH]

Hello,

I do think it is possibly fungal. It can start out as infection too but fungus definitely becomes raw sometimes. Honey would be ideal
to use initially since there are some raw areas & it is gentle on the skin. You could get some gauze to wrap around the leg so it isn't
as sticky.
How is he doing this evening? Does he have a pretty good appetite?
It would be a good idea to separate them & eventually they adjust to being moved around.
Are you getting him to a vet or just going to try a few things first to determine improvement?

Tracie

He's been still eating very well, I gave him a big bowl of salad and he ate all of it. Tomorrow I'm going to give them some crickets but he's always been a good eater.
I'm not sure yet what I want to do about a vet, I've called a few places in my area that see exotics (nowhere in my state specializes in them I don't think) and everyplace is booked solid until February, at this point it might be out through March. I can't justify waiting months and having to deal with an extensive vet bill only for the vet to be inexperienced in beardies and have to potential of doing something drastically wrong. I really would like to bring him to the vet but there's alot of things there that worry me as I just said and in general I've had bad experiences with vets with my dog for example, who consistently try to do anything they can to get more money regardless of what's going on with the pet. I have no issue paying for my animals to be cared for, I just don't want it to be counter productive. For now, unless I find a vet that's experienced in exotics I think I'm going to try to keep going forward with taking care of him at home. I wanted to do a culture test to see what the infection is but I couldn't find any on any sights that seemed trustworthy, and I didn't want to throw upwards of a hundred dollars on something I didn't trust.

 

[AHBD]

I think the honey will help quite a bit. It's good that he eats salad so well, what do you put in it ? He does need a lot more protein so offer him insects a few more than usual at each feeding or feed them an extra day of insects. When using crickets be sure that none escape in the enclosure. They can hide and come out later and will go right for your dragon's wounds. BTW, what is his name , I don't think I saw that in your posts.?

 

[AHHHHHHH]

My male is named yoshi and the female is named peach. In his salads I have a spring green mix that I chop up into little pieces for them to easier chew and I also have either spaghetti squash or butternut squash and I also add in carrots occasionally. He likes the greens alot more than squash but he normally eats them both. I give them crickets every three days or so and try to give them a super worm or two every day. This all depends on the availability of these things in my area ofc but this is the normal. I dust the crickets with a calcium powder.

 

[AHBD]

Yoshi and Peaches, cute names. Sounds like a good diet, just increase the insect part. For greens you can add turnip, mustard, collards and kale as well. Avoid spinach and swiss chard though.

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Those are great names! How are they doing today?
That's great you provide a good variety of greens & veggies. The crickets are very good & you could also add some silkworms or
hornworms, too for more protein.

Tracie

 

[Jupitertheking]

I have two beardies (they're caged together which I know isn't recommended but I didn't know that at the time I put them together and now whenever I try separating them they don't move or eat so I just keep them together since they aren't hurting or bothering each other at all).
My male dragon has been having alot of skin issues recently, it first started a few months ago and I was going to bring him to the vet but then after awhile it went away and got better so I ended up not. However the issue has reappeared recently and I tried doing everything the same as last time but it's just getting worse. I thought it was just stuck shed and I would always just soak him and if it was something that came off easily I would try to help him with it. During the past month or two, some of these areas of stuck shed started to pile up because he would get upset if I ever tried to help him get it off, so I left the shed alone thinking it would eventually fall off on its own. The largest issue area is on his rear leg on the knee, his shed kept building up here and eventually fell off leaving a large open wound here. Some of the scales around it look infected and the lower half of his foot hasn't been shedding properly at all now, and whenever I peel the top layer of shed off the scales underneath seem very weak. Other sores have popped up on him since the leg issue, one on the side of his face near his ear hole, one on the bottom of his foot, one on his side and one on his front arm. These areas aren't as raw as his leg but they have scales that are piling up and then finally falling off and revealing raw skin. All these areas are much darker than the rest of him. He has patches on his skin that are more yellow than the rest of him but I'm not sure whether or not these spots are from old scales being a little dirty, his coloring or if it's indicative of something like yellow fungus. I've read alot about the possibilities and I'm fairly certain that he either has a fungal or bacterial issue. I would love to bring him to the vet and have tried booking him an appointment but I'm very limited to where I can go given there aren't many herp vets in my area and every place I have called is booked solid for the foreseeable future. Are there are any home tests to figure out what the issue is? I don't know what else to do because I got him from a Petco store and he was already in fairly bad condition (underweight, missing a toe) so it's not like I could contact a breeder for any help either.
I've also noticed he's been losing a bit of weight lately, even though he eats greens consistently, squash occasionally and gets crickets every other day or every three days (three times a week typically)
I'm really worried about him but I can't bring him to a vet due to the back up (plus ive heard some questionable things about beardies and vets), and am hoping there's something I can do at home for him, he has the same amount of energy as always and still has an appetite. I have attached some pictures of the problem areas

Thank you to anyone who can help me

YOU need to get them separated ASAP that is not good for them one will be healthier than the other one bec they would be taking all the resources and they probably stoped eating and everything else because they are stressed that always happens if you move a bearded dragon and it’s normal u should just give it time and important because you don’t want the other one to get the infection and raw honey is helpful just put it on the places that are infected or hurt just like a cream u can buy these from the groceries

 

[Jupitertheking]

Yeah I'll take the water bowls out, i figured it would have to be done, I'll just give my girl more consistent baths so she doesn't have to miss that. I'm going to try to find a bin or something for one of them, although ideally I'll find something I could place in the tank to divide them so that I don't have to get a whole new lighting set up and I can just rearrange so everything is hitting both of them. I'm going to order some antibiotics right now for him and will start him on those as soon as they ship. I really appreciate all your help!

No Problem and sounds good good luck to u and ur bearded dragon

 

[AHHHHHHH]

So an update, yoshi has been shedding alot since I've been putting the honey on him which I think is probably good however he's losing even more weight. He just ate about 60-80 crickets yesterday (dependant upon how many petsmart ACTUALLY gave me) and I've started giving him flukers liquid vitamin supplement. He still has enough strength to move around and stuff but his fat pads behind the eyes sunk in even more and now his eyes are sinking in. The base of his tail also looks super boney. This change happened over night, yesterday he looked much fuller in these areas. I just gave him a little bit more of the liquid vitamin but he doesn't like it very much. I put him back into the tank and he's laying in the basking spot with his eyes closed now. I feel like I did something wrong here for him to rapidly decline so much I don't know what to do he looks like he's dying is there anything left I can do for him? I'll attach some pictured of his skinny parts but it's hard to see due to the light.

Yoshi and Peaches, cute names. Sounds like a good diet, just increase the insect part. For greens you can add turnip, mustard, collards and kale as well. Avoid spinach and swiss chard though.

 

[KarrieRee]

So an update, yoshi has been shedding alot since I've been putting the honey on him which I think is probably good however he's losing even more weight. He just ate about 60-80 crickets yesterday (dependant upon how many petsmart ACTUALLY gave me) and I've started giving him flukers liquid vitamin supplement. He still has enough strength to move around and stuff but his fat pads behind the eyes sunk in even more and now his eyes are sinking in. The base of his tail also looks super boney. This change happened over night, yesterday he looked much fuller in these areas. I just gave him a little bit more of the liquid vitamin but he doesn't like it very much. I put him back into the tank and he's laying in the basking spot with his eyes closed now. I feel like I did something wrong here for him to rapidly decline so much I don't know what to do he looks like he's dying is there anything left I can do for him? I'll attach some pictured of his skinny parts but it's hard to see due to the light.

We need Tracie to look at him
@Drache613

 

[Jupitertheking]

So an update, yoshi has been shedding alot since I've been putting the honey on him which I think is probably good however he's losing even more weight. He just ate about 60-80 crickets yesterday (dependant upon how many petsmart ACTUALLY gave me) and I've started giving him flukers liquid vitamin supplement. He still has enough strength to move around and stuff but his fat pads behind the eyes sunk in even more and now his eyes are sinking in. The base of his tail also looks super boney. This change happened over night, yesterday he looked much fuller in these areas. I just gave him a little bit more of the liquid vitamin but he doesn't like it very much. I put him back into the tank and he's laying in the basking spot with his eyes closed now. I feel like I did something wrong here for him to rapidly decline so much I don't know what to do he looks like he's dying is there anything left I can do for him? I'll attach some pictured of his skinny parts but it's hard to see due to the light.

Sunken eyes could mean that it’s dehydrated

 

[AHHHHHHH]

Sunken eyes could mean that it’s dehydrated

I have salad in the tank for him and I've been bathing him consistently, I had to take the water dishes out of his tank due to the infection

 

[AHHHHHHH]

I just put some crickets in for him and he is showing zero interest in them, I tried giving him some superworms a little bit ago and he only ate 2 of them

 

[Jupitertheking]

I just put some crickets in for him and he is showing zero interest in them, I tried giving him some superworms a little bit ago and he only ate 2 of them

Oh maybe he is tired of the crickets I feed mine darkling beetles 2 everyday and crickets, wood roaches and calci worms and he loves them honestly I can’t tell which one is his favourite but sadly he isn’t eating much salad he just started on eating a bit carrot